The Outcast's Journey
by Axel Nightblazer
Summary: (One-shot based on D&D characters made by my group.) Alexander the warrior, Dwarfus the outcast, and Emiya the wanderer. These misfits meet each other while travelling for various reasons, sharing no close bonds. Though their sense of purpose is very little, each hopes to find a place where he truly belongs. Thus they head to the city of Collinia for a perilous mission...


The first thing to be noticed was a pain that felt as though it would split heads. Clumsily, as the poor, small man tried to move, his head jerked forward unnaturally, while his vision was blurred. The only thing that could be seen was a sea of vivid, bright color-too bright, causing him to squint.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?"

The dwarf winced from the half-sarcastic remark, feeling as though it had been spoken with a good amount of voice-amplifying magic. "Urf…how much did I drink last night…?" he mumbled, reaching out for a canteen which he wasn't totally sure whether it was there or not.

"About six bottles' worth." His human companion picked up the canteen from a few inches away and handed it to the dwarf, only to watch him spill the water all over his face rather than into his parched throat. "Oh, come on, what is with you and these hangovers now…"

The dwarf's name was Dwarfus. He barely came to four and a half feet, and had a full beard of dark brown hair. While he carried a Morning Star-a kind of mace-at his hip, it rarely went used compared to the spell tomes his bag carried. His earthly green clothes looked to be of simple cloth, but they really were magically enhanced, making them able to contend with most armor.

His companion was Alexander, who we previously mentioned was human. His hair was also brown, but it was a lighter shade hinging on blonde. He wore proper metal armor, and a great axe was on his back. His muscle tone was, as the heavy axe required for one to even swing it, quite impressive, and of course he was taller than the dwarf.

Remembering his situation and bemoaning his fate, Dwarfus sighed and fell back down on the grass. A few meters away from them was a well-worn road of dirt and cobbles, surrounded by multiple trees. This road snaked alongside the border of elf territory for a long time before reaching their destination. The dwarf's territory was a hundred miles east, far away from them.

Alexander had simply told Dwarfus he was travelling to the human city of Collinia which was several miles from the city in which they met, although that claim felt shallow due to his heavy armor that rivaled that of a soldier's. Dwarfus had merely agreed out of a place to go, because there was no place such as home for him anymore.

A former cleric with an enormous drinking addiction and a liver that somehow was still in working condition despite the vast amounts of alcohol he drank on a near-daily basis, Dwarfus' impaired mental processes caused him to accept a drinking competition with a noble. Not only did this raise large alarm for it was rather unsightly conduct for a cleric, but for anyone outside the aristocracy-even a clergyman-to defeat a noble at _anything_ was something that could not be forgiven. Out of fear that Dwarfus might win, they sought to imprison him, using any "abuses" he had performed as the reason.

Luckily, his friends in the church reasoned with the nobility frantically, and the verdict ended up being an expulsion from dwarf territory. However, Dwarfus had only realized what this meant after he had left the territory-he was now an outcast with no safe haven. This simple realization was a painful one.

Getting into the world of humans was difficult, what with all the learning of customs and such. And after that, the feeling of having no place where you truly belonged was a terrible one. No human gave him any respect, constantly taunting him for his drunkenness and his height. Malice and cold rejection met him everywhere. Of course, Alexander was one of the less offensive ones, who made less racist comments and even shared supplies with him. For that Dwarfus was thankful to have met him, but it still didn't feel right.

No matter how it was looked at, Alexander was still a human who had a life separate from his. The only thing Alexander had said was "I've got business in Collinia. You feel like coming?" How much that meant when they actually got there was something else entirely, and Dwarfus dreaded that.

Alexander packed up their supplies and stood up, helping Dwarfus to his feet. "Well, come on. You don't want to come face to face with goblins who may have been stalking us, do you?" He let out a laugh, but in truth the bands of marauding goblins were nothing to take lightly. A few groups had been encountered two days ago, and despite Dwarfus' skill with his Morning Star and the ungodly strength behind Alexander's axe, they had been hard-pressed to fend off the goblins who only had pilfered or makeshift equipment to contend.

Dwarfus grumbled and began to walk towards the roadside, when he suddenly thought he saw something red on the road, walking the same direction they were. Rubbing his eyes, he saw that it was a tall young man-no, an elf. His skin was strangely dark, and his hair was white, a rather unusual look for someone who looked to be in his late teens. Towering at six foot ten, he stood above even Alexander. The red Dwarfus saw was a red longcoat, worn over black leather armor. It looked as though he had been travelling for a while, and yet his equipment was in perfect condition. Of course, the most notable and saddening part were his blue eyes which did not show any resolve to keep living.

"Hey, Alexander…look over there," Dwarfus alerted his companion. Alexander turned and saw the elf, who at this point had reached them. "Hello there!" Dwarfus greeted warmly. "Where might you be headed, tall one?"

He was not expecting what answer came in a low, depressed voice: "Anywhere this road is going would be fine for me."

"Haah?" Dwarfus heard Alexander let out a sound of surprise at the same time that he did. For one to be travelling without any clear destination in mind…what was the point of that? "Are you saying you just walked into Human Territory without purpose?" Dwarfus demanded.

The elf looked at the sky, considered, and then nodded. "That's basically the gist of it."

"Okay…well, if you're looking to where this road is going, it'll head to Collinia," Alexander replied affably, pushing his disbelief aside. "We're also heading there; care to join us?"

"That'll be fine. I don't have any other commitments anyway," the elf replied, though he didn't seem very happy despite this.

Dwarfus offered a hand, hoping the elf would not show the same contempt that was shared between the average elf and dwarf. "Name's Dwarfus. And this here is Alexander."

The elf took his hand and shook without feeling. "Emiya," he introduced himself punctually. Then he began walking down the road, his retreating back convincing them to speed up.

* * *

Alexander and Dwarfus spent the next few minutes bantering about some other subjects, like what Collinia was like. Emiya did not join in on the conversation, however, and when asked questions he would only give short and direct answers. To see an elf such as Emiya was mind-numbing; elves were usually very full of themselves and eager to prove their knowledge or superiority.

Several hours passed, and Alexander moved on to talking about his home, Tolbana. Large windmills powered most of the buildings, and many high-quality bars and restaurants were there, which he promised to take them to one day if the chance came. The farmers were also nice and would offer you residence in the upper floors of their houses, which were surprisingly neat.

Dwarfus eagerly nodded along with the conversation, but he didn't know what to say about his own home, which made him panic slightly, so he gave very insignificant details. "So what's your home like, Emiya?" he asked, trying hard not to look at Alexander for fear he had given unsatisfactory information.

Yet another surprising answer came to him: "I have no home. If you're asking where I was born, it was the elf capital. But that home died ten years ago."

Dwarfus looked confused, but he heard Alexander gasp, and looked at him in hopes of answers…though the answer he received was one that was shocking and saddening to hear. "Ten years…was that the time of the infamous fire?"

"Yeah. Don't ask how it started, because of course I don't know. But the point is everyone I knew there died. The people on the edge of the city were safe, and of course the aristocrats could bribe their way to safety, but…" Emiya's voice slowly progressed from depressed to angry when he mentioned the aristocrats, and his hands started clenching. "The only person who survived without evacuation was me. Some old magus enchanted my body to protect me from the fire, but he could have used that magic on himself. Some little kid with no dreams got rescued, and some old man who had the power to help many people was killed…" His shoulders shook with the frustration. "Is there any meaning to it at all?"

Dwarfus really didn't know what to say of the story which he had never regarded as truly important until now. He glanced over at Alexander, who seemed to be acting the same way. They could only bow their heads and remain silent…until Emiya suddenly threw out both hands, stopping them. They looked up at him in surprise, and found a deathly cold look in his eyes that resembled a trained assassin's while he's making the kill. "Something is coming. Get your weapons ready, but also prepare healing items and stay back." Without waiting for a reply, he walked right into the center of the area he prevented them from entering.

"What's he on about…? Just what is coming-" Dwarfus saw Emiya's eyes flash blue, and then he suddenly found his senses heightened-a common elf's magecraft to enhance their companions' senses. Then Dwarfus saw movement about fifty feet into the woods-it looked like goblins from what little he could see. "A goblin ambush _here_? And he intends to fight it off alone? What's this guy think-"

Emiya drew a longbow from the burgundy sheath on his back, and primed an arrow. The bow, despite looking to be made of yew, was a pure black-certainly no paint at all, and the arrows had wickedly gleaming silver tips, pitch black shafts, and dark feathers at the other end. His eyes, still glowing blue, did not waver once as he released the arrow which let off a clear note-like sound from the sudden loss of pressure. One moment later, there was a scream, hinting he had struck. A second arrow entered Emiya's hand without delay from a quiver at his left hip, and he drew, aimed and fired without wasting time. Another scream followed.

Then one of the goblins jumped from the trees behind Emiya, but he flipped backwards while priming another arrow. His feet kicked against the ground hard, and as soon as he was stable he aimed for a kill shot. The arrow was encompassed by a blue glow just before he fired, and flew faster than it should have, piercing through the goblin's breastplate. This killed it just before its sword could strike Emiya.

Multiple goblins burst from the trees, too many for Emiya to strike with his precise arrows. Emiya simply watched them come, then leapt into the air, dodging their weapons just before they could hit and returning his bow to the burgundy sheath on his back which no one had really paid attention to. Then, his hands reached to his right hip, grabbing a white short sword in his right hand and a black sword in his left hand, and he swung them down upon the goblin's heads before executing what resembled a crazy sword dance through the ranks of the goblins. Heavy axes crashed down on his back, but he only was knocked to the ground, and swung at their feet without delay, wiping them out.

However, numerous goblins rushed out of the trees to help their comrades. Realizing that so many enemies at once would cause disaster for Emiya, Dwarfus could not restrain himself any longer. He grabbed his Morning Star from his hip, recited a quick mantra that had been read so many times that he no longer needed to look at his tome, and rushed in with a battle cry, a golden glow surrounding the mace. Just as a goblin soldier raised his hammer, Dwarfus smashed the mace into his stomach, blasting him backwards.

"Can I trust you to hold them off for a bit?" Emiya asked, knocking an axe-head to the side with the black sword and slicing it clean off with the left sword, then ramming the goblin that wielded the useless handle with his shoulder, sending him crashing into his comrades. Dwarfus nodded, and Emiya leapt out of the fray, stowing his swords and readying his bow. Dwarfus was enveloped in the midst of the goblins, who now bore shields.

Emiya's swords obviously did not work well against them, Dwarfus realized as he noticed the multiple cuts in the shields. However, the Morning Star was perfect for dealing with them. As he thought this with confidence, he brought the heavy mace upon one shield, knocking the goblin far back into the trees. One of the goblins suddenly struck him in the back with a warhammer, but to Dwarfus' surprise, he was knocked away without any broken bones. Then the warhammer and its owner fell to the ground, an arrow sticking through his breastplate.

Another war cry was heard- Alexander's this time. His great axe came crashing down on the shield, and its impressive size and weight literally crushed the unlucky goblin that was in his way. Dwarfus and Alexander's heavy weapons were able to rip through the combatants easily, but they were surprised by how easily their fight was going now. To be sure, Emiya's archery put the goblins that came just too close out of action just in time, letting them keep focusing on the opponents at hand, but their weapons struck with more power and their armor was harder to penetrate. Before they knew it, all the goblins lay around them, dead. "Wow…that was fast," Dwarfus commented, stowing the Morning Star.

"I don't think you did much enhancement magic earlier, did you?" Alexander asked, returning the giant axe to its holster on his back. "Wonder how we did that so fast then…"

Emiya walked up to one of the deceased and pulled the arrow directly out of it. He looked it over several times and tossed it aside, noting it was unusable. "Should we take their loot? Unlike today, money has had little use for me."

Surely there had to be a limit on the amount of ridiculous things this elf could say. But Alexander grabbed Dwarfus, who was inspecting a mace with interest, and walked past Emiya quickly. "That can't have been the last of the goblins. We don't know when more will come."

Emiya nodded and followed. "Hey! Can't we take just a bit!" Dwarfus protested, looking desperately at the mace.

"No!" both of his companions retorted automatically.

* * *

By the time they had reached Collinia, it was already dark. The temple-like buildings of square white stone looked more foreboding to Dwarfus than how Alexander had described it. Several waterways punctuated the white stone paths, from which a full moon reflected. For whatever reason, it felt as though this was a pathway towards the end of his time with Alexander.

After checking into an inn and unequipping their armor, Alexander guided the two into a rather fancy restaurant, sat them down at a four-person table, and started ordering things. Dwarfus gawked at all the names of the dishes, mainly because he didn't know what any of them were. Alexander told him which foods were made of what. "It's on me; you can get whatever you want," he told Dwarfus and Emiya.

"Oh, really? Then perhaps you can get me the best amontillado," Dwarfus retorted with a smirk, pointing at the most expensive part of the wine menu. Alexander's face paled and he tried to find a way out of getting that, while Emiya looked at the menu with a dismayed look.

The food came soon enough, and Dwarfus eagerly grabbed the food and wolfed it down using his hands. Alexander groaned and put a hand on his face as he picked up a piece of chicken with a fork, while Emiya stared at the dishes blankly, apparently uncomfortable in this fancy place. "Oh come on, don't you guys know anything about etiquette…" Alexander muttered with an annoyed look.

"That's not important to someone like me. Why did you bring us here?" Emiya brought the conversation swiftly back to reality as he usually did.

"One of my contacts wanted to meet me here," Alexander replied, nodding at the door.

At that moment, a woman with long black hair walked in and sat down directly at their table. She had piercing green eyes and a business-like air. "I'm glad you remembered my favorite dish," she commented to Alexander with a smirk.

"Whatever. Why did you call me here?" Alexander asked, keeping his face blank.

The woman looked him directly in the eyes. "There's been a report of a necromancer running amok these days. I called you because you're one of the most reliable people I could count on. Are you in, Alexander?"

"Of course," Alexander nodded, then turned to the others. "Sorry, guys. We only reached our destination just to go on with another journey. But do you guys want to help on this one?"

"I told you anywhere is fine," Emiya replied while standing up. "And you, Dwarfus?"

Although Dwarfus was very annoyed that coming to Collinia only meant that they would be leave shortly afterwards, by now he knew the answer to a question like this, and it greatly relieved him. Alexander would not leave him behind for sure. Also, his time with the two of them had provided him with his first friends since the banishment, and proved to him how important it was to protect one's friends. After they had travelled with him and had their lives depend on each other, there was no other alternative. "Yes!" he declared at once.

Alexander grinned, the woman smiled, and even Emiya relaxed just a little bit. "Then I will expect you three to appear tomorrow at the West Gate." Having finished her meal unusually quickly, the woman strode out of the restaurant a few moments later. "Good night, you three."

"So who was that, anyway?" Emiya asked, slowly spooning the food into his mouth.

"Uh…just a contact," Alexander replied, shrugging."

…they continued to speak. However, Dwarfus just listened with a smile as a suddenly very smug-looking Emiya suddenly began to try and pry into Alexander's love life to the latter's embarrassment.

He finally had a place that he would belong to.

* * *

That night, Emiya was standing on the balcony outside the inn they had checked into, looking right up at the moon. Dwarfus had already fainted dead away due to drinking too much, and Alexander should have been getting to bed. _They'll need to be at their best_, _won't they?_ As he thought, a knife in one hand scratched against a stick of black wood in his other hand, shaping it into the form of an arrow shaft. His skill at fletching had gotten to the point where he could do it solely on muscle memory. Unfortunately, he'd need to secure arrow heads as well, and of course he didn't have any equipment for blacksmithing.

"I need a walk anyway," he muttered and leapt off the balcony, landing without a noise. As he stood up and began to walk down the street. His eyes flashed blue once again, as he looked through each window for the blacksmithing equipment, for he couldn't read the human language. To his annoyance, he did not find any such shop for the next 15 minutes.

Suddenly, he thought he heard something and turned on his heel. There was no one to be seen…for people other than Emiya. With his eyes still glowing blue, he saw several footprints of dark earth other than his own upon the white stone. They were leading to an alleyway to his right. Emiya bolted into a position where he could see into it clearly. Numerous boxes stood in the dark alley, but Emiya knew someone was behind them. "Any reason why a shady person like you would be stalking me?" he asked warily.

"Hey, hey, no need to get angry." The man, who appeared to be a magus, judging from his black robes, waved his hands, but it felt more like mockery than reassurance. "I just heard a few moments ago that you were going to go fight a necromancer, right? Then you might as well bring me along."

"What would be so wonderful about that?" Emiya continued to doubt, and never took his gaze off of the magus for more than a split second. He didn't even dare turn off his enhanced awareness magic. "High-level necromancy and spiritual evocation aren't very uncommon tricks for someone with robes like that." Indeed, they did look like the robes worn by master-rank magi.

"Eh, if only that were for real," the magus shrugged. "As is, there are still some really nice things I can do…" He raised his hand, revealing a glittering emerald which shone brightly in the darkness. Emiya realized, however, that this brightness came from the magic imbued inside the crystal. As soon as he came to the deduction, it warped into a longer and sharper form, which, when thrown from the magus' hand, went sailing into a box inside the alleyway. This was a simple earth-type battle mage's attack, Alarius' Crystal Spike. Most basic magi could perform the spell.

…well, it was a rudimentary attack, but this was different. Instead of being six inches long, the spike was about a yard long, hence instead of a simple arm motion, the magus had to draw it back behind his head like an expert lance thrower. And the spike sailed towards the box, pierced into it from one end, and then kept going right through the wood before impaling itself about a foot into the wall behind. "Oh dear…I seem to have gotten carried away," the magus commented, this time without a mocking tone.

"Good call. I don't believe whoever is on the other side of that wall will be very happy. You'd better run," Emiya agreed. However, due to the power of that spell, he decided that it might be wise to have this magus come with them…though he would watch carefully. "Tomorrow, go to the West Gate. That's where we'll be."

"Got it," the magus nodded, and hurried away before using what appeared to be a teleport magic. Emiya made haste to get to the blacksmith shop, meanwhile.

* * *

The next day, Dwarfus eagerly went on to the gate, while behind him, Alexander and Emiya appeared to be discussing something with serious expressions. Whatever that was about was beyond him, but he continued on anyway…and then noticed a man in black magus robes tailing them when he looked over his shoulder. "Hey, who's that?" he asked, pointing.

"Is that the guy who you say is joining us?" Alexander asked, pointing at the magus. "He looks shady…"

"I don't trust him either. _Make sure to keep an eye on him_," Emiya replied, though in a very quiet voice.

The woman who they had met was standing at the Gate, beyond which a tall mountain stood. Her clothes also seemed to resemble the robes of a magus, and there was a silver battlestaff in her hand. "I hope you're prepared," she told them with a steady yet fearsome gaze.

Dwarfus noted that Emiya seemed even more on edge, but said nothing and continued to act merry. "Well, lead the way, um…"

"Rosalia," the woman replied. Her smile was rather lopsided, but whereas it seemed warm during the previous night, it looked more threatening now. "Alright, let's go…" She began to trek down the road, the others following. The mysterious magus stood behind Dwarfus and Alexander, and Emiya stood just behind the magus.

The hike took them through scenic forests and neared the side of the mountain. However, the mysterious magus raised a hand to stop them and raised a hand, seeming to touch an invisible barrier. "Ah, I see…secluded, well-fortified with enchantments…perfect place for a magus' workshop," he commented with a mockingly praising tone. "For a cowardly, abominable corpse jockey, anyway."

"You don't seem to be fond of it," Alexander noted, taking the axe off his back just in case.

"No, I'm not. The dead should rest in peace. Tampering with their bodies is akin to speaking ill of them after they're dead."

Emiya's eyes flashed once again, along with everyone else's. "Ah…that helps," the magus murmured, before raising a hand and firing a burst of lightning from his hand, causing something up ahead to explode and reveal numerous soldiers…that were skeletons. "I suppose I should have expected," the magus sighed. "Well, let's see how this does."

Dwarfus found the undead soldiers absolutely repulsive, however, and ended up charging straight at them. Luckily, the heavy Morning Star crashed through their bones easily. Alexander followed suit, swinging his axe upon the skeletons and shattering the bones into fragments. Then Emiya let two arrows fly and shattered the few bones on the skeletons that held their arms to their spines.

"I hope your dodging is good-or if not that, then your unarmed combat!" they heard the magus shout at that moment, and a cone of green light burst from behind Dwarfus and Alexander, and suddenly their weapons disappeared…along with all the armaments of the skeletons. While Dwarfus panicked about where his Morning Star had gone, Alexander just let out a battle cry and ran at the skeletons, ramming them aside with his thick armor. "Hey, not bad…" The magus handed Dwarfus his Morning Star. "I'll give you a better warning next time."

"Disarmament magic…" Dwarfus found his senses dull back to their original state, meaning Emiya had retracted his Group Awareness. "That's a pretty nice trick right there!"

"Yes, very impressive," Emiya agreed in a less convinced tone.

* * *

After many shattered bones, the five found themselves standing before the entrance to a cave. Emiya's eyes flashed again, and he peered into the cave. "I don't think our necromancer friend is home right now, but…" His eyes swiveled multiple times, looking for any traps, then shrugged. "I can't see anything. You?"

The magus peered into the cave, but even he did not see any traps. "Well, I suppose it's safe to destroy the workshop," he commented, and raised his hand-

Suddenly, the four of them were struck by a beam of energy, and all their weapons disappeared. "What?!" Dwarfus looked around desperately for his Morning Star once again, and saw it-at Rosalia's feet!

Rosalia let out a laugh and pointed her battlestaff at them, and the four were thrown right into the middle of the workshop. "You were so busy focusing on that other magus that you didn't pay enough attention to me!" she cackled.

"Rosalia…what's the meaning of this?!" Alexander demanded, in a deathly cold voice that reflected his shock at being betrayed. "You lied about the necromancer and lured us here to kill us? What's the point of that-more importantly, why to _me_, when you were one of my closest allies?"

Rosalia's tongue disgustingly went across her lips with a loud noise. "I only came close to you just to observe your talent and the money and equipment you got. Eventually I planned to take them from you…and what better way is there than this?"

Alexander's eyes burned with rage, but he couldn't come up with the words to say. Seeing someone such as Alexander in a state of mind like this made Dwarfus feel even more afraid. Then it was Emiya that spoke, with his own cold anger. "Someone like you who abuses relationships…to I who lost all of them to catastrophe, there is no greater sin than to disvalue your friends!"

Rosalia's brow furrowed. "I really hate idealistic people like you, elf. How about you die first?" She jammed her battlestaff into the ground…and suddenly, soldiers of bone began to dig themselves out of the ground. The others began to find their bodies weakening, and before they knew it, they couldn't even stand. Alexander tumbled to the floor, unable to bear the weight of his armor, and Dwarfus' tome felt like the largest boulder now. The magus was beginning to utter what probably was a counter-curse, but it was impossible to do this so fast.

As the zombie horde came closer, Dwarfus felt fear spring up in his throat even higher. Without weapons or strength, what could be done?

"DWARFUS!" he suddenly heard Emiya shout in the most desperate tone. "THERE'S GOT TO BE SOMETHING IN YOUR TOME THAT CAN PROTECT US! USE IT!"

Emiya's urgent words sparked something in Dwarfus, and he recited a mantra, pointing his hand towards Alexander. At that moment, golden light flowed through Alexander's armor, and despite the devastation he felt, the human stood up and roared, running at the skeletons.

Rosalia gasped at this new development, but that was far from the worst. As Alexander punched his way through the skeletons, the armor gave off a blue hue. Dwarfus wondered what it was before realizing that Emiya's eyes glowed with the exact same shade of blue. Both spells allowed the enraged Alexander to power his way straight to Rosalia, leaving the skeletons confused as they tried to turn back.

"Ack…" Rosalia looked around desperately for something to do, having exhausted all her mana bringing out the zombie horde that had been pierced through in a second. She then noticed a vial on a table and bolted towards it…

Suddenly, one of the skeletons let out a blood-curdling shriek as green lightning bolts began to course through its body. Rosalia stopped for a moment out of panic, and Alexander was knocked out of his rage spell to stare at this phenomenon. Emiya and Dwarfus suddenly got the feeling that they had to get away, but they had no strength to do anything but turn their heads to see the magus holding a bone in his hand that had several reels of copper wire tied around it. "See how you like Exploding Bones on THIS scale!" he roared, gripping the bone so hard that he crushed it.

The bodies of multiple skeletons now were encompassed with the lightning, and they exploded violently, sending fragments of bone everywhere. This time, the magus pulled out a container of crystal and shattered it, causing acid to fly just in front of the bones and prevent them from harming Emiya, Dwarfus or himself. Alexander just took it with his armor, though he was knocked into the wall hard.

The sheer amount of bone shrapnel shattered all the equipment about the workshop and impaled itself in Rosalia multiple times. She let out an agonizing scream before one vial was shattered, suddenly exploding and taking her with it. And just like that, the cave was silent once again.

Emiya and Dwarfus stood up, feeling the strength return to their bodies. "Alexander, will you be fine?" Dwarfus asked, still worried about the effects of the betrayal.

Alexander's taut face finally relaxed as he picked up his great axe and strapped it to his back. "I'll get over it eventually." He handed the bow, arrows and short swords back to Emiya, and the Morning Star back to Dwarfus. The magus didn't receive anything due to not even having weapons.

Then Emiya turned to the magus and bowed his head. "I'm sorry for being suspicious. It caused my attention to focus solely on you…this would have been averted if I wasn't so mistrustful."

"Don't worry. I didn't act quite right anyway." The magus offered his hand. "Pegalsus. I hope this isn't the last time we meet?"

As Emiya shook his hand, Dwarfus sighed with a look of disappointment. "But darn…now that this is over, we don't even have anywhere to go. We have a Dwarf outca-er…traveler, an elf that doesn't have any home, a human who I think was a soldier, and a magus who acts creepier than he is…what is there left for a bunch of misfits like us?"

Alexander smiled. "I think I'll take you guys back to Tolbana like I said I would. Any objections?"

"Meh, might as well come," Pegalsus sighed, dusting off his robes which had tiny fragments of bones on them despite the Acidic Shield. "A freelance magus like me doesn't exactly have a place in mind between jobs."

"It sounds like an enjoyable place," Emiya noted with an actual smile. "I'm all for it."

Dwarfus and Alexander grinned at each other out of pure happiness. "Then let's get out of here, guys," Alexander declared, and they strode back down the mountain, leaving the cave silent as it was supposed to be.

* * *

**PHEW THAT'S DONE. I practically wrote this in two days. -_-**

**I wrote this partially for an English Project because I was out of ideas (the version for the English project was lame-ified due to excessive length), partially to break up the hiatus I seem to have fallen in (again)…and partially because I felt like it.**

**Right now, I'm in a (dead) **_**Dungeons and Dragons**_** group. All main characters in this story were based on the characters we created for ourselves. The character Emiya (who was based on Archer from **_**Fate/Stay Night**_**…I need to stop making references to that :/) was mine, though you probably could figure that out already since I made him take center stage during multiple scenes since I'm just so…MODEST (wut).**

**I do not plan to continue this story at this moment; our D&D group has not met for about seven months now. I asked the others to make profiles for their characters, but they have not finished them as of today (6/3/13), which left Emiya as the only one with a personality that was guaranteed to be consistent and distinct when I started writing this. Also I have way too much on my plate, so…yeah.**

**Hope you enjoyed this, and that fans of my other stories will not kill me for this.**


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